Living with Diabetes FR

Publié: Jun. 3, 2025

Mis à jour: Oct. 30, 2025

12 temps de lecture

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Education is empowering when you’re living with diabetes. This guide will help you learn more about the best food for diabetes control, staying physically active, and the connection between mental health and diabetes.

Main Takeaways:

You are never alone on your diabetes journey. There are many resources available, including your healthcare team and local diabetes communities.
It’s more than possible to enjoy the things you love and have fun experiences when you’re living with diabetes.
Managing diabetes with confidence can include healthy eating, physical activity, caring for your mental health, and finding community.
Educational resources, self-management tips, and diabetes stories from others can help guide your diabetes management journey.

Living Well with Diabetes

Managing diabetes is a demanding 24/7 job that requires a lot of energy, attention, and courage. Living with diabetes can feel overwhelming at times, but know you are never alone on your diabetes journey. There are plenty of educational tools, healthcare resources, diabetes technology options, and community support systems to help you manage the condition and live an active and fulfilling life.

Every person’s diabetes experience is unique, and learning what works for you and your body is a continuous process. An important part of diabetes management is self-care, which includes the habits, routines, and choices you make every day to support your well-being. Diabetes is a complex condition and there are many elements that impact diabetes management. Just a few of these include your diet, physical activity, sleep, and your mental health. It’s not always easy to keep all of these variables in balance, so be sure to give yourself grace. Educating yourself about managing diabetes can help you understand the condition and feel more confident caring for yourself as you grow through your diabetes journey.

Taking a Holistic Approach to Managing Diabetes

Healthy living with diabetes is about feeling your best as often as possible while reducing the risk of diabetes complications. One of the most important aspects of managing diabetes is looking after your blood sugar, also known as glucose.¹ Experiencing high and low glucose levels can impact the way you feel and affect your overall well-being. Over time, issues with glucose can cause other conditions such as nerve damage or heart disease, which is why maintaining healthy glucose levels is integral for good health.²

Glucose control is affected by processes that are going on in your body as well as circumstances in your environment. The diaTribe Foundation has identified at least 42 factors that can have an impact on glucose levels. In addition to physical activity and diet, hormonal changes, gut health, and even the weather can have an effect on the way glucose is regulated in the body.² Taking a holistic approach to diabetes management means paying attention to the way these many interconnected elements impact your glucose management and your overall sense of well-being.

Healthy Eating and Diabetes

For individuals living with diabetes, food is an integral part of managing the condition. Well-rounded nutrition is part of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes diet plans, but there’s no one-size-fits-all diabetes diet that works for every person.

A registered diabetes dietitian can help you put together a personalized diabetes meal plan that works for you. Your diabetes dietitian can guide your food choices and educate you about what foods to avoid with diabetes. Consistency is key for glucose regulation, so it’s a good idea to find foods you enjoy eating every day that can also help you reach your nutrition goals. Using technology like a Dexcom CGM System can help you learn how foods affect your glucose levels so you can continue to tweak your diet plan along the way.

While there’s a strong connection between healthy eating and diabetes management, keep in mind that many factors can influence your glucose levels. What you eat can be just as important as when you eat it. For example, eating balanced meals at least three times a day can help your body regulate your glucose levels. The combination of foods that you eat during meals also impacts your glucose. Eating fibre first, followed by protein and fat, then carbohydrates can help reduce glucose spikes after you eat.¹⁰

Eating healthy comes down to preparation. Diabetes Canada recommends that those living with diabetes regularly plan their meals for the week ahead. They have many diabetes meal plan templates you can use to get started.

As you build your type 1 or type 2 diabetes diet, you might want to familiarize yourself with the glycemic index (GI). The GI ranks foods on a scale from 1 to 100 according to how quickly they increase blood sugar.¹¹ Choosing lower GI foods such as lean meats, greens, and nuts more often can help you keep your glucose levels in range.^1,2 They also have great nutritional benefits, offering the essential vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy when you’re living with diabetes.^1,2 Some foods, such as fruit, rice cakes, and cereal, may be recommended as part of popular diets but have a high GI. It’s a good idea to check the GI of the foods you like to eat to ensure they can help you reach your glucose management goals.

There are plenty of delicious foods with a low GI you can incorporate into your diabetes meal plan. Always consult your doctor and diabetes dietitian before making any changes to your diet. Here are just a few examples of the best food for diabetes control and what foods to avoid with diabetes from Diabetes Canada to inspire your meal planning:

Physical Activity and Diabetes

Movement can help you manage your glucose levels, lower your A1C, and support your overall well-being. Diabetes Canada recommends that individuals living with diabetes get at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity at least three days every week, which should include both aerobic exercise, or cardio, and resistance training, or strength training. Research shows that doing a combination of cardio and strength training activities is more effective for lowering A1C than just doing one or the other.¹² For individuals living with T2D, resistance training has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity.¹³

When it comes to exercise and diabetes, every body is different. You don’t need to work out extremely hard to get the benefits of movement. Like eating, your physical activity plan should be tailored to your needs, preferences, and abilities for you to get the most out of it. Here are a few tips and insights to help you feel confident engaging in physical activity to support diabetes management:

Manage Your Glucose When You’re Active

Whether you’re just getting started with physical activity or already love being active, it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor about managing your glucose levels while you’re exercising. Intense physical activity can cause stress hormones to spike, which can increase blood sugar levels in the moment.¹¹ When we’re engaging in physical activity, our muscles can absorb glucose from the blood without needing insulin at all. This can quickly lower your glucose levels, especially in individuals living with diabetes using insulin. Prolonged aerobic exercise like running, swimming, or cycling can keep glucose levels low for 24 hours or more.¹⁵

Build Enjoyable Movement into Your Everyday

Staying active can be easier than you think. Doing chores around the house, shovelling snow or raking leaves, and running around with your kids or pets are all everyday activities that can help support your glucose management. Some other ideas for simple, low-impact activities you can keep doing every day might include:

Going out for a walk around the block.
Dancing in the kitchen with your family.
Carrying your grocery bags.
Taking the stairs or walking up the escalator.
Adding small wrist and ankle weights to a stretching routine.

Living with diabetes can be a challenging experience. Trying out organized exercise activities can give you the opportunity to connect with your community, have fun, and let off some steam. Join a curling league or tennis club, head to the local rink to play pickup hockey, sign up for a yoga class, or join a local walking or jogging group. You could also try a dance class that connects you to your culture, such as Classical Indian dance, Filipino tinikling dance, Colombian salsa, Ukrainian folk dance, or Indigenous dance.

Get Kids Involved in Physical Activity

Diabetes Canada recommends that kids get at least an hour of physical activity each day.¹⁵ There are plenty of opportunities to get kids living with diabetes involved in fun physical activities. Playing in the backyard, heading to the park, and going sledding or skating are great ways to get kids moving. The diabetes community also has lots of programs where kids living with the condition can connect while doing physical activity. Just a few organizations that offer programs for children and youth include:

Diabetes Canada D-Camps
DSkate hockey camps
I Challenge Diabetes adventures

Don’t Be Afraid to Try New Adventures

It’s more than possible to manage diabetes while engaging in more intense physical activities like competitive team sports, mountain climbing, long-distance running, or challenging workouts. For example, Dexcom Warrior Ben is an avid rock climber and regularly heads out to the mountains near Vancouver to spend the day scaling cliffs. Warrior Max Domi has played for several teams in the National Hockey League (NHL) since 2011. Young Warrior Leena is a top-ranking tennis player who has represented Canada at the World Junior Tennis Championships.

It’s a good idea to let your doctor know when you’re trying out new activities. It’s also important to keep an eye on your glucose when you’re challenging your limits. Dexcom CGM Systems can make it easier to monitor your glucose levels, whether you’re working out at the gym, going on a challenging hike, or playing a competitive sport. If you’re ready for your next great adventure, Connected in Motion offers outdoor programs for adults living with T1D that combine hiking, paddling, climbing, and camping with peer-to-peer support and diabetes education.

Mental Health and Diabetes

Mental health and diabetes management are closely related. Managing diabetes can be physically demanding and emotionally challenging. It can take a lot of energy to stay disciplined around monitoring your glucose levels and making healthy choices all the time. Friends and loved ones who don’t live with diabetes may not always understand what you’re going through, which can lead to feeling isolated.

The winding road of diabetes management isn’t always an easy one, and it’s normal to feel down about living with diabetes at times. Individuals living with diabetes may be more likely to experience mental health challenges like depression, anxiety, and diabetes distress. Learning a little bit more about these states of mind can help you recognize whether you’re experiencing them and empower you to seek the help you deserve.

Dealing with Diabetes Distress and Burnout

Diabetes distress refers to a range of different emotions that can come with living with diabetes. These feelings can include worrying about diabetes complications or being afraid of experiencing low blood sugar. Diabetes distress can also include feeling frustrated or defeated when the work you’ve put into looking after your glucose levels doesn’t seem to be making a dent in your diabetes management goals. Stress that comes up in relationships, such as feeling misunderstood or left out, can contribute to diabetes distress as well.^16,17

Experiencing diabetes distress or struggling with diabetes management for a long time can lead to burnout. Burnout can look like skipping check-ups, disengaging from family and friends, and giving up on your diabetes management routines.¹⁷ It’s a good idea to address diabetes distress and alleviate some of the negative emotions you’re feeling so that you can continue to feel capable and confident caring for yourself. Diabetes Canada’s Diabetes Distress Scale questionnaire can help you reflect on your mental health to determine whether you need to reach out for help.

Just a few things you can do to care for yourself if you’re experiencing diabetes distress are:¹⁸

Discuss how you’re feeling with your diabetes care team or registered diabetes educator. They can help you make adjustments to your diabetes management plan or find more support.
Connect with the diabetes community. Spending time with others with similar experiences provides a safe space for you to express what you’re going through.
Prioritize doing things that you enjoy, and remember to reward yourself for all your hard work. Whether you’re reaching your goals or not, it’s important to focus on positive self-talk and give yourself plenty of self-compassion.

Addressing Depression and Anxiety

Those living with diabetes have a higher risk of experiencing mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.¹⁸These challenges can make it more difficult to manage diabetes. In turn, struggling with glucose management can contribute to feeling depressed or anxious.¹⁹ When it comes to mental health and diabetes, remember that taking care of your emotions is part of your overall diabetes management strategy. Reaching out for help when you’re dealing with challenging feelings is a courageous act of self-care that can support your long-term health.

Like living with diabetes, the experience of depression or anxiety is complex and highly personal. Both depression and anxiety can be a part of diabetes distress or burnout. Prioritizing stress management practices like taking walks, meditating, doing yoga, exercising, and doing activities you enjoy can help you manage your mental health. It’s also a good idea to connect with your loved ones about what you’re going through so they can provide caring support. However, be sure to speak with your doctor and diabetes care team about how you’re feeling. Clinical depression and anxiety typically need to be addressed through therapy with the help of a counsellor or psychologist or with medication.¹⁹

Know that you never have to struggle with your mental health alone. There are many resources available to help you care for your mind. Diabetes Canada has some quick tips for managing diabetes-related stress to help you get started on your mental health journey. If you’re looking to connect with a counsellor or psychologist, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) has a directory of mental health professionals trained to help individuals living with diabetes.

Connecting with the Diabetes Community

In many ways, living with diabetes can be a catalyst for meaningful lifelong friendships. Making connections within the diabetes community can support aspects of your diabetes management. Sharing your feelings and experiences with others who are going through—or have overcome—similar challenges can help you feel validated and inspire you to keep going. Participating in the diabetes community can help you stay physically active and motivated to keep making healthy choices. Others may also have great diabetes tips you can use to strengthen your management routines.

There are plenty of ways to get involved with the diabetes community, from simply reading or listening to diabetes stories and following others living with diabetes on social media, to attending diabetes events and signing up for community activities. Just a few places to connect with the diabetes community in Canada include:

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) community activities.
Diabetes Canada galas, fundraisers, and sports events.
The National Indigenous Diabetes Association (NIDA) regional services.

You can also discover diabetes stories and opportunities to connect in the Dexcom Warrior community. Follow along with the Dexcom Warriors on Instagram and Facebook @DexcomCanada and find more Warrior stories on our YouTube channel.

Caring for Kids Living with Diabetes

Being the parent or caregiver of a child living with diabetes is a challenging job that can leave you feeling overwhelmed and anxious. It’s never easy to see your child struggle. Those who care for kids who have been diagnosed with diabetes must figure out how to navigate the complex new world of diabetes while managing their child’s reaction to the condition. Supporting yourself as a caregiver is just as important as supporting your child.

Managing diabetes is a lifelong learning journey. As you learn more about diabetes yourself, you can also give your child the opportunity to gain the skills and knowledge they need to manage the condition independently as they grow up. Getting your child involved with the diabetes community, encouraging them to engage in fun physical activities, and regularly checking in with them about their feelings are all ways you can help them feel their best as often as possible.

Using a CGM system can help both you and your child manage diabetes with a little extra confidence. Dexcom CGM Systems are intuitive to use, which can give kids the opportunity to learn how to look after and manage their glucose levels by themselves. Parents and caregivers can also take advantage of remote monitoring using the Dexcom Follow app. With Dexcom Follow, you can get glucose readings on your own smart device,† even when your child is at school, hanging out with friends, playing sports, or having a sleepover.^‡ This can give kids a greater sense of freedom and independence while providing greater peace of mind that you’ll be in the know about their glucose.¹⁹

Parents and caregivers can also find support in the diabetes community. JDRF hosts regular online meetups for adults and parents impacted by T1D and offers peer-to-peer support opportunities.

Enjoying Life to the Fullest with Diabetes

Even when managing diabetes challenges your mind and body, it doesn’t have to hold you back from living a life you enjoy. You can pursue your professional goals, engage in physical activities that push your limits, take those dream vacations, and find a place in a welcoming community of others who live with diabetes, too. Managing diabetes can be a meaningful and rewarding journey. As you face and overcome difficulties, you can gain a deeper sense of self-confidence and inner strength.

CGM systems like Dexcom CGM can help you live life to the fullest by providing a more comfortable and convenient way to monitor your glucose without routine fingersticks.^† Dexcom CGM Systems, including Dexcom G7, can provide real-time readings on your compatible smartphone, smart watch, or handheld receiver. This makes it easier to check your glucose even when you’re busy doing the things you love, so you don’t have to interrupt the moment. It can also reduce worries about experiencing low glucose levels when you’re on the go or fears that you’ll have a low while you’re asleep—giving you greater peace of mind.

Dexcom CGM Systems can play a key role in increasing your knowledge of your own body and give you the insights you need to better understand how the different factors that influence glucose affect you in unique ways. This can help you continuously improve your diabetes management routines and increase your overall health and well-being.

Manage Diabetes with Greater Confidence with Dexcom G7

Dexcom G7 can help you get started with glucose management right after a diabetes diagnosis and empower you to strengthen your diabetes management skills.

* For a list of compatible devices, please visit dexcom.com/compatibility.
† Fingersticks required for diabetes treatment decisions if symptoms or expectations do not match readings.
‡ Separate Dexcom Follow app required. Internet connectivity required for data sharing. Followers should always confirm readings on the Dexcom G7 app or receiver before making treatment decisions

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l-planning
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